Share revenues else tour is off, PCB tells BCB

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided in principle to call off its tour to Bangladesh in April-May if the Bangladesh Cricket Board refuses to share revenues for the series of two Tests, three One-day Internationals and a T20.

“We don’t want to end up spending money from our coffers to send the team to Bangladesh,” an official source told PTI on Wednesday.

The two boards are in a standoff over sharing the revenues from the scheduled series with Pakistan demanding a 50 percent share to send its team to Bangladesh.

Pakistan’s claim is that Bangladesh didn’t tour Pakistan in 2012 for a committed tour and thus the coming series should be treated as a home series for Pakistan as well.

BCB President, Nazmul Hasan who couldn’t attend the recent ICC meetings in Dubai has however said that while they can consider giving some funds to the PCB to take care of the expenses the PCB will incur on sending its team to Bangladesh but they will not offer any share of the revenues from the series.

“It is a complex situation because relations between the two boards have not been very cordial since 2011,” the source said.

He pointed out that Pakistan had got a firm commitment from the BCB that if supported Mostafa Kamal’s nomination for the post of ICC President in 2012 Bangladesh would tour Pakistan for a short one-day series.

“We fulfilled our part of the bargain supporting the nomination of Kamal although Pakistan and Bangladesh had to field their candidates for the ICC post. And then the Bangladesh board citing security concerns pulled out of the confirmed tour which is unfortunate and they have still to compensate us for it,? he added.

He said the feeling in the PCB was that Pakistan stood to gain nothing in terms of cricket in sending its team to Bangladesh if it had to also spend money to take care of the team’s tickets and other expenses.

That is why we want a 50 percent share and if they don’t agree than it would be difficult to have this tour at all, the source confided.

He said the BCB had indicated it would be sending over some officials to Lahore to discuss the standoff and how to end it later this month.

Nazmul Hasan has said his board would be willing to take care of the air tickets and some other expenses of the Pakistan team but will not share revenues.

PTI